search is your friend, like most of these guys said N/A on a Z isnt going to get you much.. not willing to pay the price for turbo. you can always go the blue bottle route, with a good install its pretty safe and cheap.

 

I have an 04' Z and I set out to free up a few extra horsepower but am not really expecting huge gains, so far i have installed 3" true dual exhaust, CAI and plenum spacer, from that i have noticed some gains, but they were so high in the rpm's that you end up almost waiting for the power to kick in. My suggestion is to run something similiar to what i plan to run, included with the mods above i plan on doing a JWT clutch and flywheel, HFC's, and some sort of tune. nonething as extreme as cams or as difficult as headers, but i think ill be able to feel them thanks to the lightweight clutch and flywheel.

 

+1 to the Stillen for a good reliable supercharger that is very low risk to bolt on our engine (I think they don't even void the factory warranty so that has got to mean something). I wouldn't get it though because if you are going to spend 5k on a Stillen (300whp) you might as well spend 8k and get a Turbonetics (370whp) and just hope it doesn't blow. The midrange torque is truly impressive and very addicting from what I hear, I should know in about a month as I am ordering one in about two weeks So here are your options 1. Go with a spacer, exhaust, test pipes, headers and be happy with a peppy car that will have about 250whp or just save up for forced induction 300-600+whp. Personally it sounds like you should of kept your WRX STI as for about $2500 you can get like 350whp and like 400wtq with bolt ons and turning up the boost. Unfortunately it is very expensive to get big gains out of 350z's If I had it to do over again I would of bought a C-5 ZO6 Vette and called it a day.

 

Yeah, that's a another story in itself I was selling the WRX cuz I put over 15K into it and made it a show car (body kit, turbo upgrade, carbon fiber everywhere, the works!) And it became TOO nice for a daily driver. Soon enough it was getting broken into and got my DVD/ Navi unit stolen, and the body kit was SO low that I couldn't drive it ANYWHERE without scraping my bodykit. So I thought I would try to be conservative and buy an 07 civic Si.... bad idea.... Slow as *****.... Then I traded that in for my first 350Z. I love the car, just want a lil more fun

 

 

Didn't I answer my own question?

 

Lol~ I ran a stock? C5 (non Z06) yesterday morning from a roll 20mph to about 110... Neither one of us could pull on the other. To be honest I was disapointed I didn't pull on him with everything I've done to my car... But he still had the lower weight & v8 torque advantage on me. Although he was probably pissed he didn't pull on a little v6~ :-)

06 Airbox w/ Amsoil Dropin
DIY Cold Air Intake Hood Mod + Grill Mod
MD ISO 5/16 Spacer
MD Copper TB Heater with bypass valve
MD MREV2 Lower Collector
DC Sport Headers
Kinetix Resonated Test Pipes w/ dual wideband
HKS True Dual Exhaust w/ X-Pipe fabrication
Orisis ECU Flash
TXS UTEC
TXS Tuner (Reg)
Aem AFR Gauge
Aem Oil Temp Gauge
Dyno Tune + Road Tune
Hotchkis Springs
Hotchkis Sways
Brembo/ Stoptech Slotted Rotors
Stoptech Stainless Steel Brake Lines
Axxis Racing Pads
Motul Brake Fluid
6 Point (4 AWG) Engine Grounding Kit
Battery to Chassis (1 AWG), Battery to Alternator (1 AWG)
DIY Passenger Side Crank Case Oil Catch Can
Driver's Side Crank Case Breather Filter
Nismo Diff Cooler
AAM Oil Pan Spacer
Stillen Oil Cooler
Upgraded Power Steering Cooler
Koyo 53mm Radiator

Head work, cams, bottom end build, and retune are in my near future. :-)

 

You can push more than 300 whp with a Stillen btw its claims of 390 bhp with the stage 2 kit on a revup are a bit rich...but you can have farrrr more than 300 whp on a stillen blower. and youre gonna have more than 250 rwhp with Headers, tests, exhaust, a spacer, and a reflash. id be PISSED if i bought all that and wasnt at 270 with a gooood tune. and to the guy that has a 3" true dual on a N/A car...why? shouldve done a before & after and watched all the removed backpressure KILL what little torque our engines have . and WOW @ your mods gothchick...didnt know ya had that much stuff done.

 

But, I've read extensively about what I can do to make the car faster without going FI cause im a broke *** college student and I cant afford to go experimenting with boltons. And from what I've read tighter final drive gearing willl make by far the biggest difference in acceleration with a N/A Z. 3.917 or a 4.083 is the "best bang for your buck" in terms of pure acceleration.

Edit: get rid of those 20's man...that'll kill acceleration more than anything lol.18 or 19 inch TE37's will look just as good and weigh like 10-12 pounds less EACH

 

Going FI would be the easiest , also ditching the 20's will help.

 

Yeah, looks like FI is what would make me the MOST satisfied... I will be doing some more searching on either a SC or a turbonetics... I'm also curious about the reliability of the FI cars as a daily driver. Yeah people say that they have a TT Z with NO problems, but those people are VERY well of financially and have a Z as their weekend toy! I don't have that luxury I'm sure this has been brought up MANY MANY times, I would just like peoples opinion/ experiences with their Z and power mods.

(Everyone drives different, so the problems always differ depending on how you treat your car... Here is a description of how I drive:

-Morning rush hour traffic every morning, so no heavy acceleration. (Peak RPM about 3500)
-Evenings leaving work, happy to run home (peak about 5500 RPM)
-Maybe 4-5 runs til about 6300 RPM on the weekends for my "joy riding"
-No hard shifting ever really
-I mainly want low-midrange power
-I want a CONSERVATIVE tune if I ever do get a turbo setup (low boost, VERY safe map)

Like I mentioned I had a 305 awhp WRX and it was VERY reliable. Never gave me any problems for about 8 months (clutch was perfect, tranny was perfect, CEL came on a few times only from some exhaust issues)

Hope that helps Any opinions?

 

makes sense with the power you are putting down...they can put down 270-290 plus depending on what model ls1 it was. they are about the same weight. plus the gearing in the vette is better for highway pulls (as fas as the manual goes).

 

well, looks like I WONT be going FI afterall... Just cost too much $ for me. Plus it just too much of a risk on a daily driver. I really can't afford the $ and headaches it may bring. So I'm just going to do headers and TP's and MAYBE a motordyne eventually. I dont race hardly, so all that power won't get put to use too much... From what I've read the headers and test pipes give decent results. Can anyone agree with this?

 

ho-tay. all these stupid questions is making my head hurt.

a. headers new plus install is going to cost you over 1k. i did mine for 600 bucks but i always find deals. its expensive to do the more invasive n/a mods bc nissan designed the Z for little japense men to work on them

b. test pipes are great. the exhaust system on the Z is relatively restrictive.

c. if you do your whole exhaust and do no intake mods, its really not worth doing anything at all.

d. plan on tuning your car after you mess with those mods. you wont get the best gains froom headers untuned. the best gains i have seen from untuned cars are from i/e/test pipes. my car is i/e/h/testpipe/spacer put down 240/35 untuned...tuned add 35 to those numbers

 

great input! Thank you!!! I plan on doing all my own installs, except the tune. I've heard that headers are real tough, but I've also read theyre do-able.... Gotta keep pokin around. Any suggestions on good headers/ resonated test pipes?

 

NX 100 shot and a TXS UTEC and a tune 2k +/- .. or a Greddy TT, UTEC, BOV installed for 9800. both add about 100hp.

 

FI= only way for VQ if your goal is 400+

 

Hes not aiming for 400+ I dont believe. Anybody know what the install costs are for different headers? I've heard Strup headers are one of the few that you can install without dropping the engine out.

 

Yeah, I think for the meanwhile and moneywise I cant aim for 400+ hp. Turbo kit is just too much $$$ and risk for my daily driver I may just do the test pipes, headers and Motordyne spacer...


I read that the crawford headers require moving the engine and tranny, so I know those will most likely cost the most to install. But I also heard the strup headers do not require you to lift the engine, so I may be interested in those. But now I'm hearing that it is HIGHLY recommended to tune the car after doing intake, headers, test pipes and exhaust.... Is this true?? I mean, I thought the whole purpose of bolt ons were just to BOLT ON the pieces and not require any fine tuning... Anyone know about this?

 

For starters, you can remove those heavya$$ wheels